Elijah b



(No Model.)

E. B. CORNBLL. HEATING IN PURNAGES.

[NVENTOR A TT ORNE Y WWW ' UNITED STATESV PATENT OFFICE. i

ELIJAH B. CORNELL, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNsYLvANIA, ASSIGNORTO THE NATURAL GAS FUEL COMPANY, on SAME PLAOE.

HEATING IN FURNACES.

. SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 434380, dated August 12, 1890.

v I Application filed December 10, 1889. Serial No. 3331192. (No model.)

To al l whom it may concerm Be it known that I, ELIJAH B. CORNELL, a citizen of. the United States, residing at Philadelphia, inthe county of Philadelphia' and State of Pennsylvania, have made a new and useful invention in Methods of Heating in Furnaces, of 'which the following is a specification.

My invention relates particularly to in- IO provenents in that branch of the artin which heat is generated through the agency of injected stean.

Heretofore it has been custonary to inject steam into, through, or upon an incandescent mass of carbonaceous fuel, and bythe decomposition of such steamthrough the affinity of its oxygen for the carbon of the fuel to obtain hydrogen gas, which, by admixture of atmospheric air, is enabled to be burned. My object is to cause the decomposition of stean into its constituent gases, hydrogen and oxygen, without loss of the oxygen through affinity for carbon, and to obtain thereby an oxyhydrogen gaseous nixture constituted. in chemically-combining proportions, instead of merely or chiefly hydrogen,for use in producing heat. In my endeavors to obtain this result I have discovered that I obtain the oxyhydrogen gaseous mixture in greatest amount by causing steam (not necessarily superheated) to impinge uponaneutral flame. By a neutral fiame I mean a sufficient amount of burning gas 'or gases that will have no Chemical affinity for either of the constituents of the steam, and the sufiiciency Iconsider satisfied when this burning gas is capable of decomposing the steam by single thermo- Chemical action. I term such decomposition thermolysis, and I consider the thermolyzed steam to result in an oxyhydrogen gaseous mixture identical with that obtained by me in thermolyzing in a retort, as described in an application made by me for Letters Patent hearing the Serial No. 326,47 6, and filed October 9, 1889. I have also found that such a neutral fiame is best provided by the method described in the aforesaid application. I have also discovered that the oxyhydrogen gaseous mixture obtained by the impingin g of steam upon and into a neutral fiame does not by itself readily ignite, and I find requisite to cause ignition and conbustion of this oxyhydrogen gaseous nixture in practicable amounta certain proportionate admixture of a sim lar gascous nixture'that has been acted upon cata- 5 5 lytically by passage through a catalytic'material, as described in the aforesaid application. Under this condition of admixture I find that the oxyhydrogen gaseous nixture obtaned from thermolysis in a neutral fiame, as de 6o scribed, is readily ignitible; but I find that a milder and better distributed combustion is obtained by causing the stean in its injec; tion to introducea Volume of air.

To carry my invention into eifect, I 'set n the front wall of the furnace any ordinary or desired form ot' steam-injector, and larrange this injector in such a position as wll cause the stean to impinge on the hottest part of the neutral fiame arising from the grate of said previously-described apparatus and allow of least resistance in carrying forward the Volume of gaseous mixture produced, whch gaseous mixture subsequently burns in the heating-chambers and flues of the furnace.

The acconpanying drawing illustrates the arrangement of parts of this my invention, I being the injector set in the front wall'F and connected by the pipe P to a boiler at such point as will provide so-called dry steam.

The accompanying drawing is also illustrative of a form of furnace equipped with devices for practicing my invention in its entirety, a steam-boiler not being shown, so as to indicate the fact that it may be located 'at a distance from the furnace.

A is the furnace, composed of fire-box B, having gratebars b, ash pit or chamber below said grate-bars, in which is located a ppe or injector O, having connection C' with a rego* tort D,located within the fire-box, preferably in such position that it is subject to the heat thereof, which,while it is hot enoughto cause it to convert steam into its constituent gases by thermolysis in the retort, is not sufficient to fuse or otherwise deteriorate the retort.

On the ,grate-bars is placed any suitable catalytic material forning what I'have termed a septum, for acting on the constituent gases of the decomposed steam as they pass IOO through the same. In practice for steamboiler furnaces I use the fuel or coal as acatalytic material or septun, as it subserves the purpose of initially generating the steam and initially inflaming the gases and naintaining constant inflanmation.

The practice of my improved method with the above-described apparatus is as follows: The catalytic material on the grate-bars is first ignited or heated to initially generate steam and heat the retort D, if the boiler is adjacent thereto, or to heat the retort D if the steam-supply is brought from a distant location. The dry steam entel-ing the retort D is by thermolysis decomposed in this retortinto its eonstituent gases, which pass through the injector C or continuation of the pipe C' and enter the ash-pit or chamber below the gratebars b. The gases as they pass through the catalytic material are acted upon, and are subsequently burned, partly in and immediately above the catalytic material and partly in the further fiues and chambers of the furnace, as admixed with the oxyhyd'ogen gaseons mixture obtained from the steam injected through the injector I in the f'ontwall of the furnace and thermolyzed by the heat of the neutral flame.

Having thus described ny inVention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, s-

1. The method of heating in furnaces which consists in forming an oxyhydrogen gaseous nixture by thermolysis of steam in a neutral fiame, causing admixtnretherewith of a catalytically-treatecl gas orgaseous mixture and burning the sane,snbstantial1y as described.

2. The method of heating in f urnaces which consists in forning an oxyhydrogen gaseous mixture by thermolysis of steam in a neutral fiame in connection with injectecl air, causing admixture the'ewith of a catalytically-treated gas or gaseous nixtnre, and burning the same, substantially as described.

3. The method of heating in furnaces which consists in thermolyzing steam into its constituent gases and subjecting these gases to catalytic action, thermolyzing steam into its constituent gases in a neutral flame, causing admixture of the former with the latter gases, and burning the same, substantially as described.

4. The method of heating in furnaces which consists in thermolyzing steam into its constituent gases and snbjecting these gases to catalytic action, thermolyzing steam into its contituent gases in a neutral flamen connection with injected air, causing 'admixture of the former with the latter gases, and lnrning the same, snbstantially as described.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ELIJAI I B. CORNELL. tvitnesses:

S. J. VAN STAVOREN, CHAs. F. VAN HORN. 

